Entertainment

No apology necessary

When Richard Nelson introduced his multi-play family saga a couple of years ago, it felt a little gimmicky. Each show would be about the same Rhinebeck, NY, clan, the Apples — always played by the same actors — and set in real time on a meaningful date, with an opening scheduled that very day.

The first entry, “That Hopey Changey Thing,” opened on Election Day 2010, which is when it took place. The second, “Sweet and Sad,” unfurled on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Now we meet with the four Apple siblings again on the morning of this year’s presidential election. You’d expect ripped-from-Twitter references galore, especially considering Nelson, who also directed, is said to have been rewriting until the last minute to keep the show current.

And so there are references to Gillibrand and Cuomo — Richard Apple (Jay O. Sanders) doesn’t care for either of them — and at one point the characters fantasize about what they’d ask the president if they each had a minute with him.

But “Sorry” isn’t a topical screed as much as a Chekhovian, finely wrought portrait of a family dealing with mortality, and having to make painful decisions in tough times.

The siblings have gathered in the home of the eldest, Barbara (the extraordinary Maryann Plunkett, Sanders’ real-life wife), to take their dementia-afflicted Uncle Benjamin (Jon De-Vries) to an assisted-living facility. Other issues come up, like the lingering pain of Marian (Laila Robins), who lost her daughter to suicide, and the waffling and hesitations of Jane (J. Smith-Cameron), a writer thinking of leaving Manhattan for Rhinebeck.

Nelson nails the Apples’ dynamics, helped in no small part by the actors’ striking emotional connections to each other. They make it easier to overlook the show’s meandering digressions (it runs two intermissionless hours).

Still, by now, the Apples are family, warts and all, and we have just one year to wait until we meet them again: Nelson has announced a fourth play, this one set on Nov. 22, 2013 — the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.